flâneur

The End Of Elsewhere: The Endangered Species of the Global Citizen

fugitivemargins.substack.com · 9,297 words · saved by 1 readers

From Rousseau to Bourdain, the West spent 300 years searching for meaning by leaving. That search is ending.

For the past seven or eight years I’ve taught a course on the ethics and politics of travel. The syllabus opens with a Huffington Post article by David Sze called “The Myth of Authentic Travel,” an unflashy piece that takes apart the idea that there is some “real” Thailand ducking and hiding behind the touristed one, some uncontaminated village waiting at the end of the forgotten trail if the traveler is patient, open, or adventurous enough to find it. Sze argues, correctly, that authenticity is a story the tourist tells about herself, not a property of the place she visits. It’s a clean…

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